Florida senior Mark Szaranek will be looking to win the 200 IM title outright after winning tying for the victory last year, but he’ll have to deal with Auburn’s Hugo Gonzalez and the rest of a very strong field.

Delaney Duncan of Eastern Michigan University made history Friday morning when she swam a 58.36 in prelims of the 100 breast, good for 2nd seed in finals and giving Eastern Michigan its first female swimming A-Finalist at the NCAA Championships.

2017 SPEEDO GRAND CHALLENGE

The 2017 Speedo Grand Challenge is in the books, as the final events concluded on Sunday in Irvine, California with day 3 finals. Swimmers gathered to compete in the women’s 800 free, 200 breast, 100 back, 200 fly, and 100 free, as well as the men’s 1500 free, 200 breast, 100 back, 200 fly, and 100 free. Read on for highlights from today’s finals session.

Russian rocket Vlad Morozov went up against Trojan Swim Club teammates Dylan Carter and Cristian Quintero in the 100 free. As usual, Morozov surged to the fastest split at the halfway point, taking it out in 23.52. Carter charged on the 2nd 50, trying to run him down, but Morozov was able to hold on and complete the sprint sweep with his 49.47. Carter finished slightly behind in 49.62, followed by Quintero (49.86) and Auburn’s Zach Apple (50.19).

Completing the sprint free sweep on the women’s side was Cal’s Abbey Weitzeil, who put up a 55.21 to win tonight’s 100 free. Teammates Amy Bilquist and Marina Garcia also impressed for the Bears. Bilquist set a Meet Record, winning the 100 back with a 1:01.13 to clear the former mark of 1:01.69 done by Presley Bard in 2010. Garcia blasted a 2:25.08 to win the 200 breast, moving up to 14th in the world ahead of fellow Spaniard Jessica Vall (2:25.17).

In the women’s 800 free, Auburn’s Ashley Neidigh picked up her 2nd gold of the meet. Neidigh dominated the race in 8:41.57, finishing nearly 10 seconds ahead of the field. That chopped 6 seconds off her former lifetime best, which stood at an 8:47.38 from 2016 Olympic Trials.

Trojan Swim Club’s Maddie Wright had a breakthrough swim in the women’s 200 fly. Wright, who had a stellar freshman season with USC, looks to be translating her success into the long course pool well. Since 2013, she hadn’t beaten her personal best time of 2:11.18, but tonight she finally broke that barrier to win the race in 2:10.50 after using her back-half speed to push ahead of U.S. National Teamer Katie McLaughlin (2:11.77) of Cal.

Texas A&M’s Brock Bonetti nabbed his 3rd win of the meet and completed the backstroke sweep in tonight’s 100 back final. He jumped out to the early lead in 27.31, with Douglas Nogueira hot on his heels in 27.58. Bonetti had the faster back half by over half a second, though, as he pulled away to touch in a winning time of 55.83, followed by Nogueira in 56.63.

Weitzeil has improved by 0.5 sec during last month. Good news. Great, but the pace of improvement is slow: still 1sec left to get on relay team, 1.5 sec to be selected for individual race and 2 seconds to be in contention at WC. And only one month left before Nationals.

Well, at OT last year #7 was Ledecky with 53.99. I think that 54.18 is a good estimation for #6 at this year trials. But of course you can happen to be right. I will be happy if you are right.
In my previous comment I just wanted to underline how still far Weitzeil is from the times we used to associate with her name.

Amy Bilquist was in 1.00.45 in Santa Clara in early June last year before swimming 59.37 at olympic trials.
Abbey Weitzeil was in 53.93 in late May last year before swimming 53.28 at olympic trials.

Good performances by Wright in the 200 fly and Garcia in the 200 breast.
And I forgot to mention yesterday a new PB for young talent Ella Ristic in 2.00.91 in the 200 free. She recently turned 15. I imagine that her summer goal time is to break the 2-minute barrier.

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9 months ago

About Lauren Neidigh

Lauren Neidigh is a former NCAA swimmer at the University of Arizona and the University of Florida. She got her M.S. in Criminology from Florida State and seems exceptionally confused about which team she should cheer for during the college football season. Lauren is currently working on her M.A. in …